m82

Yesterday morning, the world woke up to an exceedingly rare astronomical delight: A nearby star going supernova. Located in galaxy Messier 82 (M82, the Cigar Galaxy), just 11 million light years away, the supernova was first sighted by students at University College London on the night of January 21. It is the first supernova to be sighted from Earth in 20 years, and the first type Ia supernova in over 40 years, making this a particularly exciting time to be an astrophysicist. The supernova hasn’t yet hit its peak and will get brighter over the next couple of weeks. Don’t worry, though: Even at its peak, the supernova is far enough away that we don’t need to worry about being bombarded with cosmic rays — if the supernova was here in our own galaxy, it would be a different story entirely.

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